Letter of the Day: Pension takeaways

Clay Bennett, Chattanooga Times Free Press

January 3, 2014, 6:31PM

01/03/2014

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EDITOR: Wall Street politicos and tea party billionaires are alive and well in California. Yes, we need pension reform but not initiatives that target the 99 percent who are working hard and committed to public service that make all of our lives better.

If we take a close look at the backers of this proposed initiative, we see the Koch brothers providing a forum to San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed, with substantial funding being invested by Enron billionaire John Arnold.

One of the key points of this initiative is to allow jurisdictions to simply impose takeaways instead of negotiating cuts. I find it hard to believe the Koch brothers would ever accept a deal without negotiating. Neither should the 99 percent.

I stand with working families and the successful local pension reform deals that have been brought forward in Healdsburg and at the county of Sonoma.